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When something is critically important it bears repeating. Sunday it was revealed that another high school in NYC essentially cooked the books to allow failing students to pass. The NY Post secured a written memo from an October 2010 meeting entitled "Panel for Academic Success" which approved a series of changes for the "school grading policy" at Washington Irving HS. Read 'em and weep:

Students who get failing scores of 50 to 55 in class will "automatically" get 15 points for a passing 65 to 70 grade if they pass a Regents exam. Kids who score a minimum 65 on the Regents "should receive a passing grade" in the class.

A final grade of 60 to 64 "will be changed automatically" to a passing 65.

Students who fail a class "will be assigned ... a work product not to exceed five pages" or "alternative project." Livid teachers say pupils who cut class or blew off studying get a "packet" of work or take an online multiple-choice "credit recovery" program.

Washington Irving Executive Principal Bernardo Ascona? Refused to answer questions about the policies, according to the Post.

And why should he? Does anyone seriously think this is an isolated case? The city Department of Education (DOE) doesn't think so. They're auditing 60 additional schools for the same kind of malfeasance. How sincere are they? Principal Janet Saraceno of Lehman HS in The Bronx resigned last August after an investigation revealed she had passed 30 students who didn't deserve to be passed. What did the DOE do? It gave her a brand new job at the same salary working as an achievement coach. In the real world, that would be disgraceful. In the union-dominated world of public school education?

Business as usual.

This is the primary battleground for the nation's soul, my fellow Americans. And as of right now, that battlefield is completely controlled by a progressive coalition of unionized public employees and a Democratic party, both of whom directly benefit from the twin policies of dumbing down and indoctrinating our nation's most vulnerable minds. From 1989-2012 it is an alliance in which the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have contributed $36.4 million and $31.3 million to political campaigns.

The party breakdown? Democrats got 81% of the NEA's contributions, Republicans got 5%. The AFT gave Democrats 91% of their campaign contributions  and gave the Republicans absolutely nothing. It is this unholiest of quid pro quos that have allowed the education unions to run roughshod over the system, even as they remain an ongoing conduit for progressive ideology.

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And it is remarkable how many parents routinely accept the status quo. They routinely accept having their child's future mortgaged by a system which makes it necessary for 75% of those who "graduate" to take remedial courses before attending college. They routinely accept a curriculum in which a progressive stew pot of multi-culti, morally relative, non-judgmental, historically illiterate sub-group grievance cultivation, centered around the idea that America is a fundamentally flawed nation which can only be saved by massive government intervention, is disseminated without restraint. They routinely accept a system which has devolved to the point where failure, no matter how transparent, is no longer an option.

Take a good long look at the Occupy protesters. Virtually every one of their demands is textbook anti-capitalist, radical environmentalist big-government-is-our-savior progressivism. The overarching commonality? An irrational me-first ignorance so entrenched, only a precious few would recognize the irony of railing against capitalism using products created, developed and funded by capitalists.

And as if by magic, the movement has been co-opted by the Democrat party. No one should be remotely surprised. The seeds of this discontent have been nurtured in public schools for decades. Thus, it is no accident that the system has produced millions of children who remain utterly clueless about the exceptional nature of this nation, even as they readily espouse a socialist/Marxist/radical environmentalist dogma which has left millions dead and nations economically vanquished.

And teachers, despite all protests to the contrary go right along with the program. Don't believe it? Ask yourself why those same teachers, who constantly complain about out-of-control children who disrupt classes, lousy parents, or the principals who make then go along with despicable grade-fixing schemes have never used the collective bargaining process  the very same one they use to get raises, better benefits, etc.  to demand the right to expel unruly kids, hold parents accountable, enforce classroom discipline, or demand a genuine standard of achievement.

Why not? The reason is simple: making excuses and remaining unaccountable have become the signature casualties of a bankrupt system.

In a better world, principals like Bernardo Ascona and Janet Saraceno wouldn't be able to blow off questions, or get a new job in the system at the same pay, respectively. In a better world these people wouldn't just be fired. In a better world, they would be facing incarceration for fraud. Yet as it is just beginning to be revealed in New York, much as it was revealed in the grade-fixing scandal in Atlanta, where teachers actually held grade-fixing parties, fraud is an integral part of the system. And considering how long and how it takes and expensive it is to get rid of the bad apples why shouldn't it be? Try this from a blog about the Atlanta teachers caught fixing grades:

"Atlanta taxpayers are spending $1 million a month to keep about 130 educators named in the report on paid leave while the district prepares legal cases needed to fire them. The school district expects to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars more in legal fees. That's because schools must build legal cases against teachers with three or more years of experience, who can only be let go for eight allowable reasons. Teachers can appeal their firing all the way to the state Supreme Court."

Any questions?

Here's two answers: either abolish public sector unions in education  or abolish public school education itself. And by the way, if you think Atlanta and New York are isolated cases, you're wrong. There are dozens of cheating scandals currently being investigated nationwide.

Again, widespread cheating shouldn't surprise anyone either, not when education unions and their Democrat enablers have fought tooth and nail to maintain a status quo that is completely corrupt. So corrupt that it is populated by educrats more than willing make a conscious and calculated decision to turn failing students into passing ones  without giving the monstrosity of completely undermining a child's sense of achievement a second thought. One can only wonder how many parents would be upset if their child was mugged on the way to school.

Why aren't they upset when their child is mugged in school?

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